Currently, the Internet Protocol (IP) has been employed for radio communication, and multicast delivery from a base station apparatus to mobile station apparatuses has been proposed.
For example, a mobile communication system has been proposed, which includes mobile terminals and a multicast router. The mobile terminals belong to a multicast group, and the multicast router transmits information signals to the mobile terminals that belong to the multicast group. Each of the mobile terminals includes: means for transmitting, to the multicast router, a request for establishing a multicast path; a timer for counting a time period that is shorter than a time interval at which the multicast router transmits a presence confirmation request; means for activating the timer when the request for establishing a multicast path is transmitted and whenever the mobile terminal receives the information signal from the multicast router; and means for transmitting, to the multicast router, a request for leaving the multicast group to which the mobile terminal belongs when the time period expires. The multicast router includes means for disconnecting the multicast path in response to the request (for leaving the multicast group) transmitted from any of the mobile terminals when any other mobile terminal does not belong to the multicast group.
In addition, a mobile computing apparatus has been proposed, which migrates across link technologies connected to an apparatus on an IP-based subnet while maintaining on-going communication. The mobile computing apparatus includes: a link migration module that selects a link and notifies an interested host of a media access control (MAC) address of the selected link; and a dynamic MAC to IP binding module that may dynamically replace a first MAC address bound to an IP address with a second MAC address of the selected link.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-228885 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-289162 disclose related techniques.